And now Tom Hanks and the good people of the popular media have banded together to make me feel old. Old, I tell you.
When we are 7, 8, or 9 years old, things get put into our brains that never go away. I can still tell you the order of the songs on Side B of "Meet the Beatles" (Don't Bother Me, Little Child, Till There Was You, Hold Me Tight, I Wanna Be Your Man, Not a Second Time) and remember John's birthday (October 9, 1940). I remember the 23rd Psalm, the names of the Apostles, what I was wearing when I watched Lee Oswald get shot, hearing my minister sing as he swept the floor after a fellowship dinner, eating butter cookies that were shaped like flowers when I was in VBS. All those and so many other things from the 3rd -5th grades.And today, I still have to look up my children's social security numbers and couldn't tell you their cell phone numbers if I had to.
Obviously, my kids are important to me. But when I was younger, things were crisp and clear in my mind and are still with me.
Tell me again about how you're not going to cloud your child's mind with church until they are old enough to decide for themselves? And if you tell me you don't like the church you grew up in - find one that will teach them things you want them to remember when they are old. Like me.